A walkout can also mean the act of leaving a place of work, school, a meeting, a company, or an organization, especially if meant as an expression of protest or disapproval.
In the beginning of the 19th century there was a change in economic circumstances with the booming Industrial Revolution and young single women, between ages of fourteen to early twenties felt the need to work to relieve financial pressures from their family and to gain a sense of independence of living on their own.
While working in the mills they would send some monthly earnings back home to still fulfill the role as a contributing part of the family.
In the early months of 1834, textile sales were slow and profits were not up to standard to provide sufficient wages for the women mill workers of Lowell, Massachusetts.
The mill factory women saw this wage cut and price increase as an offense to their dignity, social quality, and economic autonomy.
On a Friday in February 1834, a sporadic walkout began after a meeting in which an agent of a mill company dismissed a woman factory worker.